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Rating: This review exists for two reasons: the first is to pay tribute to the great R. J. Dio, who left us in 2010, and the second is to do justice to an album too often underestimated or even recklessly considered by many as one of the worst Black Sabbath albums, as if records like "Technical Ecstasy," "Never Say Die" from the Ozzy period, or "Forbidden" from the Martin period never came out.
"Dehumanizer" is an album of its time, but in my humble opinion, it's the only post Ozzy one containing certain peculiarities that made the early '70s Sabbath a group capable of influencing the future of heavy metal in a clear and tangible way.
Released in 1992, "Dehumanizer" is paradoxically more solid, heavy, and sinister than many of the era's releases by major names in the metal starsystem, from the Maiden's "Fear of the Dark" to Metallica, who were enjoying worldwide success with the Black album, just to mention two big names.
A song with a doom and smoky progression like "After All (The Dead)," hasn't been heard since the early '70s, and with a bit of imagination, swapping Dio's voice with Ozzy's, the job is done.
Ronnie J. Dio is the great novelty of this album. After lending his vocals to the two wonderful albums of the early '80s that had the merit of bringing Black Sabbath into a new decade to compete with the emerging NWOBHM, the relationship between the Portsmouth pixie and Iommi was not the friendliest, partly due to a myriad of legal clauses and above all the infamous edits made to "Live Evil," which Dio never digested, leading to their separation.
The lineup recording "Dehumanizer" at the Rockfield Studios in South Wales, under the production of Mack (also producer of Queen) is the same as "Mob Rules," featuring, alongside Dio and Iommi, Geezer Butler on bass and Vinny Appice on drums, a lineup that seventeen years later would give birth to Heaven & Hell's "The Devil You Know", just to reiterate the excellence of this formation, undeniably the best Black Sabbath had after the original historic lineup.
If at the time, the reunion of the lineup with Dio seemed like a smart commercial move to elevate the careers of both Dio, after the uninspired "Lock Up The Wolves," and Sabbath, following the epic nature of a record like "Tyr" (which nonetheless contained its own gems), over the years, the quality of this album seems to grow. Songs well rooted in the present of that time, with Dio setting aside his fantasy lyrics in favor of those projecting into everyday life and the uncertain future with all its human and technological pitfalls.
The sounds embrace the solemn slowness of the past, losing the warmth of blues but acquiring the coldness of metallic, almost thrash riffs.
The opening, entrusted to "Computer God", is a warning against the new generation raised with computers but still far from the total entrapment of the internet and social networks, yet certainly prophetic. The song starts slow and majestic, accelerating at the end with Iommi demonstrating his absolute leadership as the king of riffs. The doom component is present not only in the already mentioned "After All (The Dead)" but also in the harrowing and heavy "Letters From Earth" and the beautiful and majestic "Sins of the Father." The distinctive bass of Butler instead opens the paced "Master Of Insanity" which will culminate in the epic chorus, guided by Dio in regained form.
A different subject for "Tv Crimes," the fastest song on the album, once again with Dio in the limelight for the excellent performance ridiculing the famous televangelists, who in those years were at their peak on American television networks and number one enemies of metal music, and for the groovy and wicked "I," yet again with Dio as the protagonist in a crescendo of vocal theatricality.
"Too Late" is a semi-ballad that starts acoustic before building up culminating in Iommi's solo, truly always very inspired throughout the album's duration, spreading good solos in all songs, the final "Buried Alive" and the most famous of the bunch, "Time Machine," which will also be used in the soundtrack of Wayne's World, bordering on the typical thrash metal riffarama.
Unfortunately, this formation's partnership lasted only for this album, with the related tour that also touched Italy in 1992 at a Monsters of Rock in Reggio Emilia, alongside Iron Maiden, Testament, Megadeth, and Pantera, then the usual quarrels took over the scene and the rest is history...
The album would fall into oblivion and be only remembered for its terrible cover rivaling with "Forbidden," to be later reassessed by Heaven & Hell themselves, who retrieved some songs from it like "I," "After All," and "Computer God" during their live performances.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Computer God (06:15)
Waiting for the revolution
New clear vision - genocide
Computerize god - it's the new religion
Program the brain - not the heartbeat
Onward all you crystal soldiers
Touch tomorrow - energize
Digital dreams
And you're the next correction
Man's a mistake so we'll fix it, yeah
Take a look at your own reflection
Right before your eyes
It turns to steel
There's another side of heaven
This way - to technical paradise
Find it on the other side
When the walls fall down
Love is automatic pleasure
Virtual reality
Terminal hate - it's a calculation
Send in the child for connection
Take a look at the toys around you
Right before your eyes
The toys are real
There's another side of heaven
This way - to technical paradise
Find it on the other side
When the walls fall down
Midnight confessions
Never heal the soul
What you believe is fantasy
Your past is your future
Left behind
Lost in time
Will you surrender
Waiting for the revolution
Program the brain
Not the heartbeat
Deliver us to evil
Deny us of our faith
Robotic hearts bleed poison
On the world we populate
Virtual existence
With a superhuman mind
The ultimate creation
Destroyer of mankind
Termination of our youth
For we do not compute
No !
04 Letters From Earth (04:17)
Well it's a cold world
And I'm in the middle
Caught in the in-between
I don't belong here
So I'm writing to you
It's wrong here
Where I'm sending you some
Letters from earth, yeah
Well it's a new world
And now I'm a stranger
Stranger than you know
I don't belong here
And I'm writing to you
With blood on my hands
What if I send you madness
What if I send you pain
And letters from earth, ooh
All right
Come on it's another game
But you gotta play on
Cause they say it's just pretend
Ask them why they say you'll never, never die
Come on - the game is called the end
Well it's a cold world
And I'm in the middle
Caught in the in-between
I don't belong here
So I'm writing to you
Hey let me explain
What if I send you confusion
What is the time and the pain worth
Oh no no
I'm only sending
Letters from the earth
Letters from earth
05 Master of Insanity (05:55)
Look all around
Can't you open your eyes
Voices are calling
Killing rain falling down from the sky
Crying with nightmare tears
Out on the street
You'll see blood on the ground
Cities are burning
Feeling the pain cutting right to your soul
Goodbye now
You're caught in his spell
Your freedom is gone
He's taken everything
You ever had
But if you're strong you'll survive
You've got to hold on
Open your eyes
Behind the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Under the mask there will be
The master of insanity
Innocent minds
They're the victims of shame
Staring in sorrow
Promises lying there
Broken and crushed
Confusion-just disappear
What can you give
To be left all alone
When there's nothing at all
Your freedom is gone
He's taken everything
You ever had
But if you're strong you'll survive
You've got to hold on
Open your eyes
Behind the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Under the mask there will be
The master of insanity
Behind the lies you will find
He's trying to get inside you
Just open your eyes and you will see
The master of insanity
Behind the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Under the mask there will be
The master of insanity
Between the lies you will find
that he's trying to get inside you
Out of the night into your mind
He's always right beside you
Yeah, between the lies you will see
The master of insanity
Open your eyes or you will be
The master of insanity
10 Buried Alive (04:50)
Once upon a nightmare
Once upon a time
You're running from temptation
You got lost
And found that you don't
Belong to anybody
You're all the same
Just another number
Cross it out
Whenever you don't behave
Someone got the doctor
He knows what to do
Throw some bones and mumble
The devil's inside of you
It might be contagious
It might change the plan
Get back in your tiny boxes
Even if you can't
We say you can
Join the congregation
Everybody's got to get in line and
We never justify
The choir sings a never-ending lie
When you thought you were free
You didn't need a reason
No reason to survive
As the big door closes
And you waiting for the nail
Somebody tell the world
You're buried alive
Once upon a nightmare
Once upon a time
You're running from tomorrow
You got lost
And found that another
Day has turned to ashes
Taken by the wind
Frozen seeds of sorrow
Never to begin
Join the celebration
And everybody's got to get in line and
We never justify
The choir sings a never-ending lie
When you thought you were free
You did not need a reason
No reason to survive
As the big door closes
And you waiting for the mail
Somebody tell the world
You're buried alive
One more nightmare
Just one more time
Join the congregation
Everybody get in line
Celebration
The choir sings a lie
As you call
The hammer falls
And no one hears you cry
I'm buried alive
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By CycoCiccio
Dehumanizer is a necessary listen for all true metalheads.
'Computer God' opens the dance: raw sounds of hammers and anvils echo... recalling the cadence and heaviness of 'Headless Cross.'
